Siemens IT arm sacks 500 employees

Siemens Information Systems, a business unit of Siemens India, part of German technology giant Siemens is understood to have laid off around 500 people over the last five days.

The company has 5,500 employees across eight cities in India and provides software solutions and services to aviation, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and telecom companies.

Sources said most of the affected employees were located in the company's development centre in the Electronics city area of Bangalore. "While they laid off 180 people on Friday, during the last two days they have fired about 300 people," sources told Business Standard.

"Some of the affected are employees who joined the company less than one year ago and were not given confirmation. The laid off employees are also not being allowed to serve the notice period," sources added.

A Siemens India spokesperson said the number of employees released (laid-off) was a little over 100 and were limited to one particular business unit of Siemens Information Systems.

"The global economic slowdown and unfavorable market conditions has affected the software business in India. As a result, the System Development and Engineering (SDE) business unit of Siemens Information Systems . . . has been under cost pressure. This has necessitated that SDE realign and optimise its processes, as well as resources for attaining business sustainability," a company statement said.

"The company launched a series of initiatives to reduce its cost base, which included the release of a little over 100 employees from the SDE business unit," the statement added.

The company added it was taking steps to help employees seek alternative job opportunities. Help desks had been set up for the purpose.

"In terms of financial support, the company is compensating the affected employees at terms that are higher than the contractual terms," a spokesperson said.